


Talking During the Movie

by stultiloquent



Series: Fem!Jay AU [1]
Category: DCU (Comics), Red Hood and the Outlaws (Comics), Red Hood/Arsenal (Comics), Teen Titans (Comics)
Genre: (the Titans are mentioned), Alternate Universe - Always a Different Sex, Aromantic Jason Todd, Childhood Friends, Demiromantic Jason Todd, F/F, F/M, Female Jason Todd, Friends With Benefits, Movie Night, Multi, Mutually Unrequited, New Teen Titans era, Pre-Relationship, Questioning, RHATO era, Relationship Negotiation, Relationship Study, Sexuality Crisis, no beta we die like robins
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-20
Updated: 2020-11-20
Packaged: 2021-03-10 01:02:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,635
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27645197
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stultiloquent/pseuds/stultiloquent
Summary: Technically, they'd known each other for a long time. When Jay was still a five foot nothing little runt, wearing Dick's old sweaters to hide her developing curves, hair chronically a choppy, asymmetrical mess, she'd bump into Roy in the media room all the time. Dick invited the Titans over to the Manor a lot, and movie nights were a staple. Most of the time, Jay tagged along just for an excuse to sneak glances at Donna's silhouette in the dark.Roy caught her looking on one occasion.--Jay and Roy over the years as Jay comes to terms with her sexuality.
Relationships: Koriand'r/Jason Todd, Roy Harper & Jason Todd, Roy Harper & Koriand'r & Jason Todd, Roy Harper/Jason Todd, Roy Harper/Koriand'r
Series: Fem!Jay AU [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2021363
Comments: 8
Kudos: 45
Collections: DC Aspec Week





	Talking During the Movie

**Author's Note:**

> This is an AU where literally everything is the same except for Jason's gender. So this version of Jay has also had relationships with Essence and Rose in the past, tangled with Kori a little, and went on that one date with Isabel Ardila. Nobody is straight in this story.
> 
> The story is themed around movie nights because I heard this song, ["1980s Horror Film" by Wallows](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IaIxb7-Qy-Y) and thought hey, what if Roy tried to hit on fem!Jay during a movie. Naturally, this fic grew beyond that specific moment into a backstory + relationship study.

Jay had never dated.

Some days, she thought she didn't have a single romantic bone in her body. Oh, there were women who for some reason picked her, liked her enough to kiss her, sleep with her. But for all the love stories she's read about in novels, there was no romance in the hands she's held or the lips she's kissed. There were no fireworks there, no Disneyesque Happily Ever Afters to be found. 

Perhaps the problem was precisely that she read too many dollar store romance novels in her youth, marketed to girls just young and gullible enough not to question what was on the page, selling to them false ideas of what real relationships looked like. It didn't help that she had, for a time, lived at the Manor with Dick Grayson, the biggest advocate for "true love" she's ever known. Naively, she'd thought she could apply those expectations wholesale to the women she's met. But Jay has yet to have a relationship where things didn't go tits up one way or another. The one or two dates she'd been on (if they could be classified as such) were about as exciting as watching paint dry. 

Some days she even thought perhaps she wasn't into women at all. But _that_ line of thought, at least, she's learnt to resist. The first time she had that debate with herself was - almost six years ago, now. When she didn't have a smidgen of the experience she now had. There was no denying the way she felt in the bedroom, reduced to a starstruck mess the only way she would between the thighs of women who knew what they wanted from her and took their pleasure without any shame. 

And Jay was - not happy, exactly, but she was content to settle for a life like this. It was better like this, anyway. Relationships required commitment, which meant time and complications she could not afford in her vigilante lifestyle.

But then there was Roy. Effortlessly, unintentionally, punching a hole through questions she'd already laid to rest, just like always.

*

Technically, they'd known each other for a long time. When Jay was still a five foot nothing little runt, wearing Dick's old sweaters to hide her developing curves, hair chronically a choppy, asymmetrical mess (too used to hacking away the curls herself to keep them short, much to Alfred's chagrin), she'd bump into Roy in the media room all the time. Dick invited the Titans over to the Manor a lot, and movie nights were a staple. Most of the time, Jay tagged along just for an excuse to sneak glances at Donna's silhouette in the dark. Jay spent a lot of her free moments back then staring at women and older girls like Donna, trying to figure out whether what she felt was normal for girls her age, or if it was something... _more_. Then she'd feel bad for staring, like she was no better than all the creepy men out there, ogling women without their consent, and she'd tear her gaze away like she'd been burned.

Roy caught her looking on one occasion. Everybody else had their gazes trained on the screen, but Roy had just wandered back into the room with an armful of assorted refills, and Jay froze up. She watched as Roy came closer, the crinkle of an XL bag of chips smushed against his chest lost to the rumble of whatever action sequence was playing on the screen. Jay hadn't paid a lick of attention since the movie began, and she felt her own cheeks colour in embarrassment. She hoped they weren't noticeable in the low light, and stared back at Roy defiantly, daring Roy to make a comment. But Roy just laughed as he plopped down next to her, holding out a loose fist. Jay stared at it uncomprehendingly at first, until Roy nudged her with his shoulder, eyes twinkling and lips in an easy grin. 

Jay bumped the fist once, hesitant, and Roy's grin settled into something teasing.

"So, Donna, huh?" 

Something loud and colourful flashed on the screen, lighting up Roy's face and their couch, and Jay ducked her head in an attempt to hide her darkening blush.

"Hey man, I get it." Roy said it like he too had spent his early years staring hopelessly after Donna, and maybe he had. Then, lowering his voice into an even softer whisper, he added, "Don't worry, I won't tell anyone." 

Roy mimed zipping his mouth shut, like a dork, and slowly Jay found herself returning his grin with a shaky smile of her own.

Roy knew, and he wasn't going to tell on her. That was... Jay didn't know how to feel about that. She was still reeling, wondering what this all meant as he steamrolled right on, telling her all about Dick's embarrassing exploits at the Tower. He'd gotten through two stories, was telling her about the time Dick accidentally got his cape stuck in the toilet, complete with dramatic reenactment, when their snorts (Jay's) and muffled laughter (Roy's) caught Dick's attention. Alas, Jay never learnt what happened afterwards as Dick threw a cushion at Roy's head and shushed them loudly.

But it was the first time Jay felt that maybe it was okay for her to feel that way about girls. In that one small moment, Roy had made her feel like she really belonged with them, like she was really just another Titan in the making. It didn't take long for her to start looking forward to movie nights just so she could hang out with Roy.

Then it had been 5 years until they saw each again, in the middle of a war-zone.

*

It's funny, which memories the Lazarus waters had stained and ruined and which ones had managed to rise above and stick with Jay. She could never look Bruce in the eyes again without seeing disappointment there, could never hear Dick's voice without feeling like he was asking for the little sister she had never been, but the day she saw Roy's name and face in international headlines, she could recall his easy confidence like she'd stayed up all night with him just yesterday. The nights they spent at the Manor and at the Tower, sinking their whole body weight into beanbags on the bedroom floor, the flicker of the TV on socked toes, barely muffled snickers... She blinked at the headline before her again, and knew she had to get Roy out of there, even if it meant heading into enemy territories, the place where she once took her last breath.

Kori didn't understand, she hadn't had family in a long time - hadn't kept the ones she could call family within arm's reach in a long time - but she'd kissed Jay on her forehead and followed along on her little rescue mission regardless. 

Jay wasn't fool enough to believe Kori did it just to indulge her. It wasn't like they had been anything special together, and they'd both agreed initially that whatever happened in the bedroom stayed in the bedroom. But Kori cared, in her own way. And this was how she loved, keeping an open invitation to her bed for when the nights got rough, and Jay needed to let herself be held just enough to keep the bad dreams at bay. 

It came as no surprise to Jay then, when it took less than a week for Kori to put the moves on Roy. There wasn't a lot one could do when a six-foot golden-skinned princess, who was quite literally out of this world, set her sights on you. She didn't so much as draw your attention as she demanded that you keep your eyes on her. Roy never stood a chance.

Jay barely managed to give Roy a fist bump before Kori had towed him off towards the bedroom.

Most nights Jay could hear them fucking right across the hall. (Roy insisted they "didn't fuck, they made love", though he didn't seem all that upset when Kori had snorted.) Sometimes, though, Roy would try to strong arm them into some wretched "team bonding" activities, which usually just meant vegging out on the couch, Roy trying to speed-run Kori through human pop culture via various board games and television shows while Jay put dinner together.

And sometimes, Roy would wrestle Jay onto the couch between him and Kori, and order Jay to stay put. Tonight, Jay had walked into what constituted as the common area of their spaceship with plastic tupperwares on the table and a DVD menu looping on the TV. All the lights were already dimmed.

"I got takeaway earlier, when I was out," Roy explained after Jay had sat down next to him. He didn't think it was fair for Jay to cook for them all the time, he thought it awfully backwards in fact. It just so happened that none of them preferred Roy's recipes in the kitchen. 

"Yes. Take the night off, Jay." Kori hooked her chin over Jay's shoulder, pressing her front against her back in mimicry of the few times she'd pressed up against her just like that, engulfing her in fiery warm skin and soft breasts Jay could now feel between their thin layers of clothing and, god, that really wasn't fair at all. Jay relented and pretended she didn't see Roy waggling his eyebrows at her.

Jay shifted until she found a comfortable position, Roy's bony knee a reassuring point of contact on one side and Kori's warmth a solid presence on the other. Kori slid an arm around Jay's shoulders, fingers playing idly with her curls, and Roy kept throwing not-so-subtle looks at them even as he helped himself to the food. When Kori's fingers slipped lower and dipped beneath Jay's t-shirt, she sighed. She closed her eyes, enjoyed the feeling of that warm hand brushing dangerously close to the edge of her sports bra for another second, and then extracted herself from Kori's half-embrace and turned around to stare at the two redheads.

"Alright guys, what's going on?"

"We're gonna watch the original _Alien_ trilogy back to back." Roy held up the box set, as if that explained anything.

"Roy said these are your favourite movies, so we're watching it together," Kori agreed easily.

Jay huffed. "Really? You guys just wanted to watch a couple of movies with me. That's all," she deadpanned.

"We were also hoping you might want to join us later, in the bedroom," Kori admitted.

Jay stared at her. Then she looked at Roy. She got that Kori was an alien and her ideas of how relationships worked didn't exactly fall within normal human standards; really, she got it and she wasn't judging. But Roy? Roy knew Jay was into girls. That had been established before they'd even become friends. He'd always been cool, she didn't think he was the type to want to watch.

"I thought she's your girlfriend," Jay said instead. 

Roy had the decency to look chastised, at least. "Well, we haven't put a label on it." Kori snorted. "But she said she missed you in her bed, and then she said she wanted us both. I'm sorry Jaybird, we should've asked whether you're comfortable with that."

Jay was stuck on one particular detail, however. "You said you and me both, in her bed?" 

Kori nodded. "At the same time, yes. If you're willing." 

Thoughts swirled around Jay's head. She was a little bit relieved now that she knew this was Kori's idea, not Roy's. But what Kori was proposing... They would be in the same bed, likely doing a lot of the things together. Would Jay have to touch Roy too? Kiss him? She grimaced. The thought of seeing Roy's dick, seeing Kori do whatever it was she did _with_ Roy's dick, unsettled her. She wasn't disgusted, per se, by the idea of an erect penis - and that was something she'd have to examine at another time, hopefully never - but this was _Roy_. She was gay, and even if he wasn't a guy, he was her best friend. Best friends didn't help each other get off... right? 

But she was friends with Kori, and they've done more than get each other off. 

God, Jay's head hurt. 

"I don't know, guys," Jay sighed. She was confused, a little bit upset, and confused that she felt upset. "I think I'm gonna just call it a night." She slipped off of the couch, hated herself for missing their warmth already, and fled the room. She missed the crestfallen expression on Roy's face.

The next day, Kori apologised, hatching out their boundaries with Jay and then hugged it out. Roy tried to apologise as well, but Jay stopped him at "I'm sorry" and refused to speak about the incident with him ever again. Roy was mortified enough to let it go. But Jay knew it was going to catch up to her someday. The three of them still had their version of the movie nights, but now Jay knew exactly what they would do when Roy and Kori retired to their room afterwards, and she wondered if either of them would think about her as they sought pleasure and release from each other.

*

The movie nights carried on, after Kori's departure. They moved into a warehouse, Roy picked up a TV on one of his runs for spare parts, and they stayed in to catch a movie on Monday nights. Perhaps it was written into the base code of their relationship, some invisible tenet that they must always find themselves sprawled next to each other in front of a TV together because that was the way Jay had first come to understand Roy. Some things never changed.

But some things _were_ different now. She was no longer that young tomboy Roy had found kindred, and they were no longer a trio of three good friends who found a way to fit together. Now it was just her and Roy again, world-weary and trying to live responsibly as adults. And Jay knew she couldn't run away from her problems forever. 

It was a Monday night, Roy had somehow rigged it so that their entertainment system was connected to someone's Netflix account, and he'd put on some 80s horror flick. It wasn't _Alien_ \- that was one of the things that had changed after that incident, and it sucked now that neither of them felt comfortable enough to watch the movies they used to marathon and quote at each other all the time - but they had chips, lukewarm soda, and a cheesy slasher movie on the TV, and this was close enough. 

Jay slid her gaze over to Roy, watched him chortle at the dialogue and spill cheeto dust onto his pants, and it occurred to her just then that she'd known all along, what the true difference was between contentment and happiness. It was like a switch had been flipped, and suddenly she realised the answer to those questions Roy had reignited, ones she'd tried and failed to answer so many months ago.

And she watched as Roy raised one of the cans to his lips, watched as his throat bobbed with a sip and a gulp, her eyes lingering just long enough to catch when the tip of his tongue darted out to lick away the sweetness of the soda. Then she tore her eyes away and stared unseeingly at Jason Voorhees's mask on the screen, and wondered if it was too late now to ask what _Roy_ wanted from her on a different couch all those months ago, if he would've asked her even if Kori hadn't come up with the idea. She wondered if Roy would still want her, if Jay said yes now.

**Author's Note:**

> I have my own set of headcanons for a fem!Jay continuity like this and one thing of note is that Jay is genuinely sapphic here. She just hasn't had any good experiences with romantic relationships so far (as is the case in canon). Please don't take this story as an endorsement of straight romance being more legitimate than sapphic romance. As I said, nobody is straight here, so should anything happen between Roy and Jay, it still wouldn't be considered straight. 
> 
> I didn't really spend time on Roy's pov, but in my mind he's bisexual and as such doesn't understand why Jay might turn down an m/f/f relationship at first. [Here's a good bi!Roy fic](https://archiveofourown.org/works/4330203) that goes a little into his view on gender and relationships, which pretty much informed my interpretation of Roy here.
> 
> I actually had a way different fem!Jay/Roy fic in mind originally, one where their feelings are requited and involved a lot less angst than this, and if I have the time I'll write it someday.
> 
> In the meantime, come chat about headcanons with me on [Tumblr](https://stvlti.tumblr.com/)!


End file.
